I met with a mate on the weekend at a children's birthday party who had just recently completed the Run 4 The Kids. After the usual analysis of the run, and assessing his split times, his race followed a very common path of many I speak to as he started much faster than he finished, and wasn't able to hold his desired pace right til the finish. He wants to know what he can do about this problem, that I hear so often?

So i put this to him; What would happen if you completely turned your split paces upside down? You start the race at the pace you finished (slower than you intended), and build your pace through the race, and finish strong and fast. At worst you would run the same time, but feel great about finishing strongly, instead of being disappointed at finishing slowly. But better than that, you are much more likely to run a faster time as you feel stronger as you finish.

I explained to him that this is how you want to plan your race; start a bit slower than your desired pace, settle in to the race finding your rhythm, then build your pace throuhg the middle, and finish strong and fast. This is called a Race Plan and requires some planning & discipline, but is effective. More than that though, it simply doesn't happen unless you plan for it!

Next he states, " I just want to go under 4min/km!". There are a number of accepted goal times for recreational runners; sub- 3hr marathon, under 1:30 for the half, and a sub-40 min 10k time. hence the 4min/km goal. So, you just want to go faster.

You won't get faster by just going out each week and trying to run faster - that just makes you tired, leads to overtraining and often injury from pushing too fast all the time, and it simply doesn't work like that. To get faster, you need to get stronger. You get stronger by doing shorter, faster interval training sessions. These include track sessions, interval training, hills and tempo running, all designed to increase your running strength and speed, and improve your anaerobic thresholds for running faster, for longer!

So, if you want to get faster, you need to train specifically for it. We can help you achieve your pace goal with a personalised program specifically structured to increase your pace, whatever distance or event you have in mind.